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Tina P. Forum All-Star
Joined: June 28 2005 Location: N/A
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 11:08am | IP Logged
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After I lost this last little one, my doctor asked me whether I wanted to have more. I said I would certainly not mind, if that's what God chose for me. He then said that we would have to decide what to do (I don't remember his exact words, but I assumed fertility-wise). Why would he say that? I have 7 living children and had two recent miscarriages. Does the death of a baby in your womb signify infertility? I thought that just getting pregnant meant you were fertile. But maybe my hormones are starting to wane and therefore don't support life as well as they used to in the womb? I'm 39 years old and, as far as I know, my cycle is regular to give you a little background on the matter. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this?
Anyway, I told the doctor that if God wants us to have more, we will have more. If He doesn't, we're happy with what we have. I'm not going to any great lengths to have more children unless we decide to adopt.
__________________ Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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JennGM Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005 Location: Virginia
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 11:43am | IP Logged
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Tina, I'm scratching my head on this one. What is coming to my mind is that your hormone balance may be changing at your age. It's very typical for progesterone levels to be lower, often creating a shorter luteal phase, or unable to support a pregnancy. Did he test the baby's remains to see why you had a miscarriage? Was there blood draws that measured your progesterone levels?
There might also be chromosomal problems or other things since your eggs are older that may have a repeated pattern of miscarriage.
BUT...after saying all that...I'll just share this. From my own experience, since we are close in age and now both have two miscarriages...I've seen a fertility doctor and he said that from the outside it looks like I have no problems. I've carried a baby to term, and able to conceive 3 times, so they aren't technically calling me "infertile".
I have a cousin who is turning 41, has had a few miscarriages. The doctors told her to go on progesterone if she wanted to sustain pregnancies. Well, she didn't for this last pregnancy and is about to have her 8th child. Each person and each pregnancy is unique.
__________________ Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Tina P. Forum All-Star
Joined: June 28 2005 Location: N/A
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
Did he test the baby's remains to see why you had a miscarriage? Was there blood draws that measured your progesterone levels?
There might also be chromosomal problems or other things since your eggs are older that may have a repeated pattern of miscarriage. |
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No, he didn't test the baby's remains. He said it costs too much. They didn't draw any blood, either. The whole process was painfully easy. The only thing they did was take a urine sample to check whether I was truly not pregnant anymore. Actually, I had a baby between the two miscarriages, so there was no immediate repeat of miscarriage.
My mom had 3 miscarriages. One when she was about 23, the next when she was 25. The third she had at 31 or 32. She ended up delivering 8 of us, the last of which is Downs Syndrome (delivered when my mom was 42). She went through all of her changes at 42 and had to have a hysterectomy.
Is history repeating itself?
__________________ Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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JennGM Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005 Location: Virginia
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 6:38pm | IP Logged
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Tina P. wrote:
No, he didn't test the baby's remains. He said it costs too much. They didn't draw any blood, either. The whole process was painfully easy. The only thing they did was take a urine sample to check whether I was truly not pregnant anymore. Actually, I had a baby between the two miscarriages, so there was no immediate repeat of miscarriage.
My mom had 3 miscarriages. One when she was about 23, the next when she was 25. The third she had at 31 or 32. She ended up delivering 8 of us, the last of which is Downs Syndrome (delivered when my mom was 42). She went through all of her changes at 42 and had to have a hysterectomy.
Is history repeating itself? |
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Big hugs, Tina. I'm praying so much for you. History could be repeating itself. My mother had two sisters. Her mother lost two babies, her first one full term, and ended up having a hysterectomy in her 40s. 1 daughter had 8 babies in about 10-12 years and then had a hysterectomy in her 40s. Her younger sister had 3, lost two babies to anacephaly (or hydrocephaly, can't remember), and had a hysterectomy in her 40s. My mother had 7 children in 15 years, and had adenomyosis which required a hysterectomy at age 52. So there was some elements of "history repeating" but not everything. All of them did not take lightly the idea of hysterectomy...it was medically necessary for each.
I have 4 sisters and we seem to have different patterns. We'll see as we all hit our 40s...I'm the first.
So long winded to say...it all comes down to trust, a lesson that I am very slow to learn.
__________________ Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Bridget Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005 Location: Michigan
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 7:01pm | IP Logged
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Tina, i just put up a blog post that has a link to an article on progesterone. Maybe something there will be helpful to you. Baby Quest
__________________ God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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Tina P. Forum All-Star
Joined: June 28 2005 Location: N/A
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Posted: March 06 2007 at 12:05am | IP Logged
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Jenn:
This is what I read in one of Bridget's links (thanks Bridget):
If a woman has had four or five miscarriages in the first six or eight weeks of a pregnancy, this is always due to luteal phase failure.
This *might* have happened in my first miscarriage, but we were 15.5 weeks along with this one when it passed away.
I wonder sometimes whether I'm just nervous at the thought of aging. It never occurred to me before that I AM aging. My husband keeps reminding me that he'll be 65 by the time our current littlest is 20.
Some folks (including some of my family) actually rejoice when THEY make the decision to end any potential of pregnancy. I will mourn deeply when my baby-making years are over. But, like you, I must always consider what God wants for me. His will be done in my life is a tough pill to swallow sometimes.
I'm trying not to *try* too hard to conceive. And I'm praying for all who want to conceive.
__________________ Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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Sarah in SC Forum Pro
Joined: Feb 07 2005 Location: South Carolina
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Posted: March 06 2007 at 11:59am | IP Logged
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Tina P. wrote:
Jenn:
If a woman has had four or five miscarriages in the first six or eight weeks of a pregnancy, this is always due to luteal phase failure.
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I went to check out this link, because this statement is very misleading, and unless you're speaking of someone who KNOWS they have a progesterone issue (and NO OTHER issue), it's flat out wrong.
We've lost nine babies, from 6 weeks to 20 weeks. All of my losses were due to chromosomal issues--I have never had a progesterone issue. So this above statement, out of context, could be very, very troubling,(especially to a Mom who is thinking "if only I had KNOWN!")if no other work or genetic counseling has been done to rule out other issues.
I know this isn't addressing your original post, but I did want to add that the only way to truly know what was at issue with a particular pregnancy is to know what was going on genetically. Many, many perfectly normal pregnancies go wrong because of a lack of progesterone, but to say that all early miscarriages are due to luteal phase failure is just wrong--and can make mothers feel an enormous sense of guilt for "not knowing" and doing something about it. I never felt "better" that my losses were due to a genetic problem, but it certainly made it easier to understand that there was NOTHING I could do about it at all--that each of those babies was made perfectly imperfect by their creator.
Praying for you, and I'm so sorry for your losses. Miscarriages are on my list of questions for God when I finally get the chance to ask Him.
__________________ Happy wife to Tom and mama to Mac, 12, Hannah, 8, Rosemary, 6, Luke, now 1! and the 9 little angels that Mary is rocking.....
"What good shall we then do with today?" --Benjamin Franklin
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LLMom Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 19 2005
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 7:16pm | IP Logged
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Tina P. wrote:
Jenn:
This is what I read in one of Bridget's links (thanks Bridget):
If a woman has had four or five miscarriages in the first six or eight weeks of a pregnancy, this is always due to luteal phase failure.
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I have had 5 miscarriages. I do know that I have had a progesterone issue BUT I have also lost a baby while on progesterone shots too so its not a sure thing to do progesterone in any form. We can do some things to help but ultimately, its up to GOd.
__________________ Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
homeschooling ideas
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